GROVES -
Five years ago, Betty Williamson Hickman and her husband Frank sold their florist, so Betty could pursue music full time. She feels music is her life's mission and she uses each of the guitars in her more than 120 guitar collection to touch peoples lives.
Music has always been a part of Betty Williamson Hickman's life.
"I've never known, not playing. I was in our church orchestra with a little ukulele when I was, I know I was no bigger than two years old," said Hickman.
In 1998, Betty became the steel guitar national champion by strumming to her own tune with her completely unique style.
She says, "I don't want anybody's licks. Mine come straight from Him."
And at the age of 83, she's sliding into her own.
She says, "I'm just full of music. I always have music in me. I hear it. I'm feeling it."
Feeling that music has lead to her guitar collection of more than 120 guitars that she lovingly calls her children, saying, "Each has it's own sound, its own feel."
And each has its own story of how it came to be in the collection.
Hickman says, "I had asked the lord to give me one of those and I went to the Dallas steel guitar convention. I looked all over the place and there weren't any there that didn't look like a tin can. But they sounded beautiful, but I knew if the lord was going to send me one, he was going to send me a pretty one."
Betty got that National Tri cone for cheaper than the owner was going to sell it to someone else for. And now like the others, it has a home in Betty's heart because she feels she is doing what she was put here to do.
She tells us, "He said to me, 'Play my music.' I was born to play. That's my purpose in life."
Not all of her guitars are steel guitars but she plays all of them on her lap in that steel guitar style. She says one of her biggest honors was being asked to join the Grand Ole Opry when she was a teenager. Betty plays completely by ear and has never had a formal lesson and although she has never played in a bar or honky tonk, she's played for crowds all over the U.S. and Canada.
